LG Electronics India (Pvt) Ltd would start manufacturing CDMA mobile handsets at its Pune facility in keeping with its plan to make India a manufacturing and export hub.

The company, which was the first one to set up a production unit in India for manufacturing GSM handsets, has planned to start manufacturing CDMA sets at the Pune facility from the second half of 2006.

It was also working on two models having global positioning systems likely to be launched later this year, product group head (GSM) H S Bhatia told reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday.

The company, however, would not make any major investments till 2010 following its investment of $15 million for setting up the Ranjangaon plant near Pune and R&D centre in Bangalore, he said.

Speaking at the launch of four new models of GSM mobile handsets, which takes the total number of models to 15, Bhatia said LGIL aimed to sell 15 lakh sets in 2006 as compared to 450,000 sets in 2005.

"Our target is to increase our market share in the GSM category from 3.5 per cent in 2005 to about 8 per cent in 2006," he said.

The company, aiming at a turnover of Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) this year as against Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) in 2005, was looking for making India both a manufacturing and export hub, he said.